Berries, Bikes and Byes

We trekked and picked until the cans were full

Until the tinkling bottom had been covered."
~Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

On Stage Introducing: Einar Van Gogh
I wandered into a future masterpiece in progress at the Pederson household yesterday.


Taking the plunge, ick. Michael takes a dip in the drainage ditch. Were it any other place I might have laughed but knowing what was running through the water that flowed out of the culverts around here all I could do was gasp and yell "Michael stop that! Yucky that is disgusting. You are swimming in poop!" Michael however was undeterred and continued to frollick about. So I did what any other honest paparazzi would have. I set down my bag and rummaged around surfacing with my trusty camera and snapped up a few impromptu documentations in case he shows up at school later this year with a 3rd arm or something.

Berry pickers unite! We hit the tundra this weekend in search of berries: salmon, blue, crow, black, rasp...whatever. Steph at the helm driving what could have been our makeshift float as you can see. Unfortunately we were not too successful, not like last year anyway. Our parade to the Arolik ended in slight disappointment as we found the lack of sun and over abundance of water this year is to blame for the decrease in berry population. Yep, the water has drown the fruit and the river still rises.

Our float in the berry parade.

Alicia, Steph and Allison with empty buckets...

Rookies up to their knees in tundra.

Steph and I, old pros that we are...

My new wheels! That have bad brakes, that don't work right so I had to disconnect them, who needs to stop anyway, right? Full speed ahead! Brakes are overrated. Betcha you won't see a get up like this in the Cheq Fat Tire Race back in Hayward. But where are your clip in pedals you say???? Not when you've got Xtra Tufs!

Cross country started last week and the kids are running like crazy. Today I drove them out to the cell phone tower (Jr. high) and for the High School...all the way to the dump dropped them off and they ran back! 4 whole miles, here are some pics of today's practice. I predict the Seahawks will be a force to be reckoned with this cross country season.



The Duncan Brothers Fishing Guides/Outfitters and company fly away with the geese and tundra swans this week. 2010 Fishing season on the Kanektok River is a wrap they say. They'll return when we fly away too next summer. Kinda like the changing of the guard I guess. We've been busy watching them pack their summer gear away in storage containers down the street. Watching them leave is basically like turning the page to winter. It's good entertainment too, you'd really be amazed at what becomes good entertainment around here;)

To Mike! Thank you! From the Kids:)

The Alaskan Beach Bum
I decided that I would 'lay out' down at the beach today. This is what sunbathing looks like on the Bering Sea ya'll! Soaking it up. Speaking of which twilight is around 11:00 pm for us right now. Though day by day we are again fading.

"If you grow a healthy tree, you'll pick healthy fruit. If you grow a diseased tree, you'll pick worm-eaten fruit. The fruit tells you about the tree." Matthew 12:33